Conventional combines, including rice combines, are generally provided with a reel for gathering a standing crop into a mouth of the combine and a cutter assembly mounted under the reel. In one form, this cutter assembly comprises a single sickle bar having a multiplicity of longitudinally spaced cutting teeth or blades disposed along the longitudinal length of the sickle bar for cutting stalks of grain. The teeth of the single sickle bar are matched with rigid and sharp stationary fingers of a guard bar which extends forward somewhat beyond the forward end of the sickle teeth. The rigid and sharp stationary fingers hold the grain stalks for cutting by the sickle teeth and because of their rigidity, the fingers also provide some protection by preventing objects, particularly larger objects, from reaching some portions of the teeth of the sickle bar.
This single sickle and rigid and sharp stationary finger cutting arrangement provides good speed and efficiency when cutting standing grain, including rice. However, the use of this cutting arrangement in harvesting of down rice and other troublesome crops presents difficulties.
For example, is often necessary to harvest rice under wet field conditions frequently due to heavy wind and rain wherein the rice has been bent or broken generally defining wet fallen rice or “down” rice that tends to be ineffectively cut by the combination of the single sickle and rigid and sharp stationary finger cutting arrangement thereby resulting in a poor recovery rate and an unreasonable speed of harvesting. The speed of harvesting is especially important because in such circumstances the conditions of the crop are likely to be deteriorating while the harvest is under way. Thus, the faster harvesting can be accomplished the greater the amount of the crop that can be saved.
Currently, an improved two cutting bar arrangement device is utilized in place of the single sickle and rigid and sharp stationary finger cutting arrangement. This two cutting bar arrangement device utilizes two cutting bars, one of which reciprocates in close contact with the other, providing a scissors-like cutting action from dozens of blade pairs distributed the full width of the reaper assembly of the combine. This two cutting bar arrangement, one of which reciprocates in close contact with the other, has shown to eliminate the above noted feeding problems by providing clean and even cutting even in the most adverse conditions as noted above. Additionally, the cutter bar blades are sharp and preferably serrated to produce a highly effective scissors or shearing action.
As a result, these sharp and preferably serrated blades engender a multiplicity of safety hazards and although the sharp and preferably serrated blades are unprotected by fingers, the physical arrangement is such that a broken or damaged blade may be easily replaced, but with extreme caution for safety.
Accordingly, these sharp and preferably serrated blades engender a multiplicity of safety hazards resulting in a need to ameliorate or overcome one or more of these engendered safety hazards.